Head Football Coaches Believe recruiting worse off for high school athletes now than pre-Internet

That view is shared by former Cowboys safety George Teague, now the head football coaches at John Paul II, Brian Brazil head coach at Hebron High School, and Scott Nady who coached at Parish Episcopal. Three area head coaches who were college prospects before the dawn of the internet, when a recruit’s swagger came from tall stacks of recruiting letters instead of Twitter-blasted scholarship offers.

Teague ended up signing with Alabama, Brazil signed with TCU and Nady with BYU.

There were no recruiting services back then. “The only way people knew who I was talking to was if they came in my room and saw the letters up on my wall.” Said Teague.

Head Football Coach Scott Nady, claims he had 25 straight days of college coaches having dinner at his family’s home. “My mom was cookin’ her tail off,” Nady said.

Nady, Teague and Brazil all agree that the recruiting process was more personable for them than it is for current recruits. College coaches didn’t have the ability to contact recruits through emails, text messages and social media back then, so there was more face time.

One thing that hasn’t changed, the high school coaches agree, is that colleges put a lot of pressure on recruits to commit. And when those colleges press too hard, sometimes it can backfire.

That happened after Brazil jammed recruiting visits to Arkansas, Houston, LSU and TCU into January 1983. He narrowed his choices to Arkansas and TCU and then asked the coaches from the schools to allow him 24 hours to make his final decision in peace.

“All I asked for was 24 hours,” said Brazil, who was an All-Southwest Conference selection as a senior. “I kind of felt like it was the answer from heaven.”